Summer's Flower (sold)

"Summer's Flower" 8x8 oil on board (with an underpainting in acrylic), ©Laura Gable

If this painting has a similar feel to the last one, then you have a good eye. It was painted in acrylics (see previous post) and had such a dismal dull finish that I decided to brighten it up with a gloss varnish. But later decided that since the birch panel it was painted on was so porous, that the varnish would likely disappear into the surface and I'd be back where I started with a very dull lifeless painting.

So I gave it a coating of clear gesso and then went about to "touch up" the surface with oil paints to give it a bit more luminosity. After about an hour of this fiddling about, I discovered that very little of the original painting was left. Oh well, sometimes fiddling has good results. I'm much happier with this and it has a deeper color range than the previous piece. Edges ended being a bit more crisp than I'd intended but I'm calling it finished.

Hope you enjoy this depiction of my favorite summer flower.

This painting was just sold at auction at the dailypaintworks.com website. Here's the LINK!

Mandarin With Leaves

"Mandarin With Leaves" 5.75 x 5.75 art panel, oil painting, ©Laura Gable

This hearkens back to cooler weather again today. I guess it's because the weather here of late has been a bit autumn-like with it's rainy days and cloudy skies. I'm not complaining, as I love cooler moody days especially after we have a string of really hot ones in this almost Summer season.

"Nestled on a shelves and tucked into nooks, these mandarins add elegant pops of color throughout the studio. I love it that you can tell the holidays are approaching when these arrive at the stores with their lush green waxy leaves and stem type branches attached."

Enjoy this walk back in time to our pre-holiday days.

And another quote for the day:

"If you keep a green bough in your heart, the singing bird will come." 

-Chinese Proverb